Update 08.10.2025, 17:00: Iris Stalzer (SPD), the mayor-elect of Herdecke who was seriously injured in a knife attack, was stabbed by her adopted daughter. Stalzer incriminated the 17-year-old during questioning, police said on Wednesday. The evidence corroborated the suspicion. The local politician is now out of danger. According to investigators, the 17-year-old daughter called the emergency number around noon on Tuesday and reported that Stalzer had been seriously injured in a robbery. Emergency responders found the 57-year-old woman injured with “multiple stab wounds” and unresponsive in an armchair, according to Ursula Schönberg, the head of operations. However, due to the “significant evidence” found in the house, investigators focused their attention on the two teenagers. Officers did not comment on the exact motive due to the ongoing investigation. However, there are said to have been disputes within the family. Investigators are classifying the crime as grievous bodily harm and not attempted murder. There are no grounds for detaining the daughter. She is therefore to be released by the police, as is the 15-year-old adopted son who was initially taken into custody after the attack. The youth welfare office is to take the two adolescents into care.
Update 07.10.2025, 20:00: In the evening, the police announced that they assumed the crime had a “family background” and that there were “no indications of a politically motivated crime” so far. The crime scene was the SPD politician's home. Stalzer remains in critical condition.
Iris Stalzer (SPD), the newly elected mayor of the North Rhine-Westphalia city of Herdecke, has been the victim of a knife attack. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch said in Berlin, “She was stabbed. We are thinking of her and wish that she survives this terrible act.” Miersch added that the party could not comment on the motives behind the attack and that the SPD is deeply affected.
According to Bild daily, Stalzer was found with 13 stab wounds to her stomach and back in her home, where her adoptive children, a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, were both present. The boy told police that his mother had been attacked by several men on the street, Bild reported. The daily added that police took the teenager away for questioning in handcuffs.
Der Spiegel wrote that there had been a previous case of domestic violence in the Stalzer household in the summer of this year. The politician's daughter had used a knife against the 57-year-old, the report said.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) expressed shock over the attack. “We have received news of a heinous act from Herdecke. It must now be quickly clarified,” Merz wrote on his official X account on Tuesday. He added, “We are concerned for the life of the designated mayor Iris Stalzer and hope for her full recovery. My thoughts are with her family and loved ones.”
CDU parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn also expressed hope that Stalzer would survive and emphasized that the circumstances of the attack must be clarified quickly. The 57-year-old Stalzer won the mayoral runoff on September 28. Backed by the SPD and the Greens, she secured 52.2 percent of the vote, defeating the CDU candidate. According to the city, her official inauguration was scheduled for November 4. Stalzer is a lawyer and had previously served on the Herdecke city council.
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